i do NOT owm ninja turtles
There was a rather awkward silence.
"Takara, this is Master Splinter," Casey said, indicating the rat. "And this is April O'Neill."
"We've all been looking for you for weeks, Takara," April said. "Tzu told us about your wing while you were in the barn. How is it?"
"On the mend now, thanks to Casey's help," I said. "It's still not a hundred percent better, but it's getting there."
"You seem to have accepted our presence here quite well," Master Splinter said, looking between me and Tzu. "Normally people ask a lot more questions. Do you not find our appearance startling?"
"A little," Tzu admitted. "But we're not human anymore, so there is no real trouble for us in seeing creatures that aren't human."
"You are a reasonable thinker, Tzu," Master Splinter said. "But my story also has a connection to the man you know as Saki. He is also known as the Shredder."
Both Tzu and I were paying full attention now that our foe had been mentioned. Master Splinter continued with his story.
"Once I was a normal pet rat, living in a cage beside my master. He was one of the most skilled ninja warriors of the day, and I learned through copying his movements. But there was one man full ambition and greed who challenged my master, who fought with nothing but honour.
The newcomer fought to win at all costs, and his name was Saki. At his whim, my master was disgraced and banished from the school where he had lived for so long.
"My master came here to New York, and made a living for himself training children to fight as he did. But the Shredder had enemies in this city and, after causing havoc in Japan, followed him here. He cornered my master, sent in waves of faithful Foot Warriors to wear my master down through dishonourable methods. During the fight, my cage was knocked over and broken.
"He accused my master of working with his enemies, but my master would not answer his questions. The Shredder ordered his henchman to kill my master when he saw he would not surrender any information. I tried to stop them by scratching the man, but to no avail. He threw me away.
"By the time I made it back to the room, my master was dead, killed by the Shredder.
"For a few years, I lived on the streets like any other common rat in a big city. Then I witnessed an accident. A boy carrying four infant pet turtles in a jar dropped it by accident into a gutter when a truck nearly ran into him. The jar smashed open, and a cylinder of a glowing green material with the letters TCRI printed on it bounced out, breaking as well.
"I found the four covered in the material. When I took them back to by lair, I found in the morning that they, and I, had doubled in size. I was more intelligent than I had ever been. They followed me everywhere underground, and soon they learnt to walk upright.
"Then they learned to speak, which was soon followed by intelligence. Knowing the world can be dangerous, and realising they would never be accepted for what they were, I began instructing them in the ways of the ninja, everything I had learnt from watching my master teach his students. I chose names for them from a book on Renaissance art."
As the story came to the end, I realised this was the connection to our enemy that Casey had left to its original narrator. And now I saw the enemy of our friends was the worst foe we would ever have to face. These new unusual allies had suffered more than we could have imagined at the hands of Saki, the Shredder.
We had been sold as slaves to this horrible man who took pleasure in killing.
If we hadn't escaped...I didn't even want to think about what we would have been forced to do under his control.
I glanced at Adkins, unsure about where he fitted in all this. I knew we could trust Casey, April, the four turtles and their rat master; but Adkins was the one who had abducted us, mutated us and come close to selling us to the Shredder.
Then something struck me: there was something different about Adkins. My eyes fell on his right hand. Instead of flesh, I saw grey metal. His hand had been replaced by a robotic one.
Aware of my eyes on him, he pulled up his sleeve, allowing me to see the whole arm. From the elbow to his hand was cold unforgiving metal.
"I paid the price for releasing you," he said. "The Shredder does not like any form of failure. When he came to collect you and found you gone, he took his fury out on me, punishing me for losing you. For a while, I stayed at his side, leading the search, ready to mislead them if I felt we were getting close to you.
"But I ran out of time. I have less than a week now to find you and hand you over. If I fail, I'm a dead man. Since I never had any intention of aiding the Shredder now, I decided to go to someone who would help me and would surely want to help two exceptional kids, and not look for control over you."
"Adkins came to us," Leonardo said. "He had this with him," he said, holding up a feather that I recognised as one of my own.
"I found it close to a place where the Purple Dragons had been holding their goods the day of your escape," Adkins explained. "It was the only proof I had found of your existence in all the weeks since you had fled. I didn't hand it over to the Shredder, even though it would have spared my neck from his wrath. I went straight to the sewers, which I knew was the domain of the Shredder's greatest enemies."
"The question now is what to do to now we have found you," Donatello said. "We could go back to the city, but I don't think you're trained well enough."
"Whatever we do, we cannot head straight for the Shredder," Master Splinter said. "And a decision cannot be made in haste."
"I think we should stay here, at least for a while," Casey said, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye. ""Takara's wing is not quite back to normal, and a little bit more time will return it to its original strength. Here she is able to fly free and soar far; in the city, she would have to be careful about when she flew and where she went –the Foot Ninjas are probably all over the place."
"And here there is more than enough room for us all," April added. "If Takara and Tzu need more ninja training, it would probably be better to do it out in the open rather than below the streets."
"You have some good points," Master Splinter said, looking at me and Tzu. "But as this decision affects them the most, I think it's only far to allow them to make the choice."
Tzu looked at me. I really wanted to stay here, in the open, away from the fear and the city for now.
It was not just because I was afraid and preferred the country; if the Shredder was the ninja master that Master Splinter had described, we would need all the experience we could get before facing him.
And I saw a desire for the same thing in his eyes. As we had learnt long ago to communicate without words, what was seen in the eyes was very important. I nodded once, sealing my agreement with him.
"We'd like to stay here," Tzu said simply.
"I thought you might decide to do so," Master Splinter said. "You both need freedom and a life without worrying about the Shredder for a while more. Soon, if you agree to let me take over your training from Casey's hands, you'll be ready to face him as one of us. Takara, you still need to get your strength up."
As one, without even needing a private conversation, we nodded our acceptance of the offer to continue our training under Master Splinter.
But if we had thought that would mean the training would be easy, we were wrong. All we had learnt over the past few weeks had been the basics. That was not even half of what it meant to be a ninja. And Master Splinter was a harsh teacher, but effective. Under him, we were constantly challenged and tested to our brinks of our endurance.
We learnt the true meaning of stealth, and when we were given weapons, it was not long before we learnt the most crucial lesson –that a weapon was only as good as whoever wielded it.
I chose a pair of short curved daggers, like smaller versions of the katanas used by Leonardo. They were a rather deadly addition to the arsenal of a flying teenager, and I had learnt to combine them with some fancy flying moves to be impressive.
Tzu chose a bo staff like the one wielded by Donatello, and his extra strength, he would create a force to be reckoned with. Certainly he was stronger than Donatello when the two sparred, making up for his lack of experience.
Inside of two weeks, we had learnt about balance, the power of remaining in the shadows, fighting with weapons and without.
One lesson I held to was that as long as a warrior's mind and weapon were joined, they could never be defeated in honourable combat.
My wing continued to grow in strength, and I could fly further and further each day that passed. Finally I was able to fly out for several hours straight and back to the farm without even breaking a sweat.
As one sparring session ended, about three weeks after we had met our new allies, Master Splinter made me and Tzu stay behind.
"Takara, there is a fierce fire burning in you, an anger and a desire to find out who you once were. In a fight against the Shredder, those thoughts can distract portions of your mind, and that could be fatal. Calm the fire or it will destroy you.
"Tzu, you have a smaller fire, but it burns even brighter. Stick with Takara, and your combined fires will be a blaze. Nothing will stand before the withering heat when you stand united. Let anyone or anything come between you, and both your fires will be no more."
We bowed and left. We knew what he was trying to tell us, the one lesson Adkins had told us –together we were strong; if we were divided, we would fall together. We already knew we would do anything for one another.
But there was something else on my mind, something more private that Splinter had detected. I was fuelled by an anger that flared up at the thought of the Shredder and what he might be doing to find us. I was determined to find him before he found us, and make him pay for his crimes.
And there was a desire deep in me to find the truth about who I was before I was snatched from the light of day.
Tzu had chosen his given identity, and that was what everyone called him, but he did have another identity –Liam Marks. He could remember Casey, his home and his family.
I, on the other hand, had no other name to choose over Takara. I was just Takara, the winged bird-kid with no family that I could remember. My clear detailed memories only went back a couple of years, but there were other faces than those surrounding me now, and I couldn't put a name to them.
It was driving me mad. And to top it off, I was jealous of my best friend.
That night at the table I was very quiet. I hardly talked, didn't take much interest in the conversations all around me or the plans for the next day. Afterwards, I headed straight for the upstairs bedroom that I and Tzu now shared with all four turtles and sat on my bed. The adults preferred to sleep downstairs.
No one came up to disturb me, and by the time they came up, I had gone for a night-flight.
By the time I got back I was the only one awake.
My newfound distraction continued. My performance in the sparring sessions got poorer and poorer in a matter of days as my mind clouded. I knew it, but I refused to discuss it, even with Tzu.
"You must focus, Takara," Leo said after he disarmed me with absurd ease. "Your mind is distracted."
When he let me up, I just brushed myself off and walked out of the barn. I was getting restless. I wanted answers to who I really was. Nothing served to distract me from that question; not even the most rigorous training appealed to me anymore.
When I retired to the bedroom, I climbed onto the roof and looked out over the woods.
Normally I felt free up here, out of the house but close to my friends. But now I just felt lonely –I couldn't talk about how alone I felt.
I was surrounded by friends who were doing all in their power to help Tzu and me, and Tzu was so close to me we were almost brother and sister. But still I wanted to find my family more than anything, and alone I had no way to start the search.
I heard the sound of talking coming from the porch below me. I slipped down, landing on the roof sheltering the porch. I recognised the voices of Tzu and the four turtles. With a jolt of the stomach I realised they were talking about me.
"Is it just me, or has Takara been acting strange for the past few days?" Mickey was asking, speaking to the group at large.
"I've noticed it as well," Tzu said. "She isn't acting like herself. Ever since Splinter held us back, she's withdrawn into herself."
"What exactly did Splinter talk to you about?" Raphael asked.
"The thing we always knew –together we're strong enough to face down any foe," Tzu said. "Since we left the underground laboratory, we've done everything together. But it's like that talk went deeper than it was meant to for Takara."
"Was there anything else?" Leo pressed. "Did he mention anything that didn't really affect you, but meant everything to Takara?"
"No, not that I can think of offhand," Tzu said, but there was a sudden break in his voice as he realised what exactly had been said. "God, I've been stupid. Splinter mentioned that she had a fire in her fuelled by a desire to know who she was."
"I don't get it," Don said.
"Somehow the conversion that Takara went through to become one-fifth crane hawk has destroyed her long-term memories," Tzu said. "When she recovered, there were unfamiliar faces with no names or significance in her mind. She had instincts, though, that told her they were important to her. She can't even remember her original name."
"How could Adkins do that?" Don said, and I could hear shock in his voice.
"I don't think he meant to," Tzu said. "It didn't happen to me, so I think he had no way of knowing that everything Takara held most dear would be destroyed. But it definitely worked to his advantage."
"That must be it, then," Leo said. "Now we know the cause, I think we can help her pull through her confusion."
"We promised to help each other reunite with our families," Tzu said. "I want her to be happy, but I don't think my family will want to see me again. Look at me, I'm part cobra now. I'm covered in scales and have fangs; I'm cold-blooded; I even shed my skin. I look like a monster. At least she has a better chance of being accepted."
Tzu had never told me that fear before; I was so used to being around him that I didn't think twice about how he must look to the normal humans. But I remembered that I had jumped when I had first laid eyes on him.
In a way he was right; I was more likely to be accepted as I looked more human, but would my parents really want a winged daughter? Would it be better to stick together and not seek out who we were with the threat of refusal hanging over us?
No matter what happened, I knew Tzu would be there for me. And I intended to be there to return the favour. Besides, it was too early to worry about that. Before that, we had to deal with the man who kept us on the run.
It was then I realised I was thinking straight again. Hearing the conversation, and Tzu's fears, had jolted me back the present.
The time for deciding to find my family, and Tzu's, would come in due time. It had reminded me of what was important. If I was withdrawn, we would never be able to call ourselves free and never able to bring down the man we hated. We had to work as a team.
I decided to withdraw, and show I had recovered in the next morning's sparring session.
The next morning, the session that pitted us against each other went smoothly. I was back to my full potential, and all my energy was focused on the present. No longer did I silently bemoan the fact that I had no family; as far as I was concerned, my friends were my family right then.
"You seem to be yourself," Leo said as we left the barn.
"I know I've been acting weird for a few days now," I said. "I've been acting like a fool, actually. But you guys helped snap me out of it and get my head on straight."
"How exactly did we do that?" Mickey asked. "You haven't spoken to any of us for four days, and suddenly you change personality again."
"I heard you talking last night," I admitted. "You reminded me of what was important. Tzu and I will never be free if we don't take down the Shredder first, and we can't to that unless our flames are burning as one."
"You heard everything?" Tzu asked.
"Yes," I said. "And I want you to know something, Tzu. I'll be there for you, no matter what else happens. Until your family accepts you for who you are other than your looks, I won't be out searching for mine."
Tzu smiled, light-hearted again. "That's the Takara I know so well," he said, grasping my hand firmly, in our gesture of friendship. I gripped his just as tightly. "And together, we can take down any hurdle."
"I'm glad you feel that way," said a voice behind us. We turned to see Master Splinter behind us. "I have taught you all you need to know for the battle to come. It is time we returned to the city."